News

The City Council approved a first reading of amendments that bring the city fire code in line with the international fire code but most of these changes would not affect current business owners unless they modify the interior, disturb the structure or change the occupancy type of their buildings, said Olney Police Detective Dustin Hudson, who also handles code enforcement.

Terri Wipperman, retired City billing clerk and former City Councilmember is running again for one of the at-large Council jobs in the May 6 municipal election. Mrs. Wipperman sat on the City Council from 2017 until she voluntarily left the Council in 2022. She was born and raised in Olney, and has deep experience at City Hall, first as a parttime municipal court clerk and as a billing clerk for the Public Works Department for 15 years. Her mother, Mary Thompson, ran M&M Beauty Shop in Olney for 50 years, and her husband Mark Wipperman served as Mayor and Municipal Judge. She is running for one of the seats held by incumbents Brad Simmons, Harrison Wellman, and Chuck Stennett, whose terms expire in May. The Enterprise interviewed Mrs. Wipperman about her candidacy and positions on the issues. Stay tuned for more candidate interviews in the lead-up to the election.

The City Council discussed how to spend the remaining $600,000 in federal COVID funds from the American Rescue Plan Act at its March 13 meeting as the deadline approaches to spend the money or lose it. “Over this next month, let’s work together … and come up with a list of what we think we will need with that balance, ” Mayor Rue Rogers told the Council. The Council voted to purchase two ground-penetrating radar devices and hire a technician to map the City’s underground utilities with some of the funds. They considered a hydraulic pipe cutter, new tires for the wastewater truck, and whether to upgrade the City’s current two-wheel-drive backhoe to a four-wheel-drive model. Mayor Tom Parker urged Public Works Director Michael Jacoba to also prioritize equipment needed for maintaining the City’s alleys to ease a changeover from residential dumpsters to single-family poly carts, which are to be picked up in the alleys. Mr. Jacoba asked for a lease for a track hoe and a roller. “I don’t know what size - but small enough to fit in the alleys,” Mr. Jacoba said.